Women are becoming a dominant force on both sides of the real estate industry, according to two articles from Inman.com and John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

“I am going to bet that the makeup of real estate industry leadership will become increasingly female over the next few decades, not because of affirmative action efforts, but purely because women are getting ahead,” real estate consultant John Burns wrote in the Oct. 6 realestateconsulting.com article “Women and the Future of Housing Decisions.” 

Burns gleaned four trends from information taken from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor  Statistics and surveys his firm conducted. These include:

  • More women graduate from college than men.
  • Between 1988 and 2014, 38% of women earned more than their husbands. That’s up from 24% in 1987.
  • Since 1973, real female incomes have risen (up 34%) and real male incomes have declined (down 5%).
  • 20% of nonworking dads born in the 1960s are staying home to take care of their children, up from 2% of nonworking dads born in the 1940s.

Burns also attributed his belief to leadership at the Urban Land Institute. The organization, which is comprised mostly of “grey-haired men like myself,” he said, now has women leaders in 3 out of 4 of its councils.

On the other end of the spectrum, women also are the decision-makers when it comes to choosing where and how their families will live. This is especially true among Hispanic women, according to an article on Inman.com (“Hispanic women play [a] significant role in household real estate decisions,”) that touts survey results from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.

“Historically, we’ve been able to broadly project the influence the Hispanic demographic would have on our industry by the sheer population growth alone,” Sherry Chris, president and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, said in the article. “However, it’s vital to understand that Latina women, in particular, are a driving force behind decisions related not only to the home but the actual homebuying transaction process.”

Those decisions run the gamut from choosing a Spanish-speaking real estate agent to deciding on the types of amenities their family’s new home will have.